Having recently published a fantasy novel, I scroll through the covers of the titles that amazon groups with mine. Some sell well, some not so much, but they all have covers whose sense of style is a bit 1970s. Their covers also tell a lot of story. Mine is reserved. I realize it probably won't grab the fantasy nerds who might browse here for titles. As I look at the many genres and sub genres of fantasy, I have to use wikipedia to figure out what mine is- you've got urban fantasy, high fantasy, paranormal, epic fantasy, young adult, and sword and sorcery. Turns out my lil' opus is young adult high fantasy with a dash of urban.
These readers are voracious (since I graduated college I have not read so much). They are willing, to satisfy their appetite, to risk buying, and reading, what could by nothing but the blather of some egotist. I do not read this way. I wait on recommendations from friends, or, the NY Times Book Section. I figure a book is an investment of three to ten hours, and I'm not wasting time on risk. What it all comes down to is that I've just written a novel in a genre that I don't know the ins and outs of, like I know literary fiction.
Why write fantasy and science-fiction, mystery, and paranormal when plain old literary fiction is the genre of masters? James Joyce and Virginnia Woolf stayed away from dragons and spaceships. My favorite living authors are Marilynne Robinson, who may not know of the existence of genre fiction, Cormac McCarthy, who writes only literary fiction.
One thing that has always made novels worthwhile to me is the story-telling. Story telling, going back to Homer, has two prized social purposes. One, after a long day, it gives you something to enjoy while drinking your evening beverage of choice. Story-telling doesn't lie, it reduces life to the essential moments, the moments out of which defeat and triumph grow- and this magical reduction makes it better than life, while still being life.
Secondly, story telling instructs. It gives meaning to life. Now, story-telling is a popularly beloved art. Shakespeare and Homer shared this appeal with J. K. Rowling. Some authors that I love and admire now write for a small portion of our population. Marilynne Robinson is not read by anyone not an intellectual. I always believed that great books could be for everybody. That's not completely true, but it is something authors can work toward. Genre writing does tell stories. It doesn't let art overrun the entertainment value of the work.
That's why I'm writing genre stuff.
Showing posts with label kindle book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kindle book. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Saturday, July 28, 2012
NEW BOOK!
I've just published a fantasy novel, Illumen's Children, for Kindle. It's pretty exciting be able to do this in such a democratic way- the readers decide! If you have a Kindle, check it out. It will be available for other platforms soon.
The book is cool in that in doesn't use sentient species as an unconscious metaphor for race. While at times this has been an apt way to explain how different culture can make us, it has also been a vehicle for racist stereotypes.
In my book the main characters are dark skinned, and live on the outskirts of their city. They are generally poor. They interact with fantastical sentient species but also humans who look different and have more money. In some ways, the world in the book mirrors ours, and in others, it is a new place to discover. Above I've posted a water color map that appears in the Kindle version. The city is stratified by class- other species and foreigners may not enter past the first ring, Agora, while the dark skinned may not enter beyond Subagora (low market) District, the second outermost ring. Alturba (derived from latin- alta urbis, high city) is for the largely wealthy and light skinned, and the innermost ring, Citadel, is where the eight noble families live. The main characters, Subagorans, face the problem of alerting the king of an assassination plot, and they're not allowed anywhere near him.
It also has a range of characters, from a heretic who speaks the truth, to a half man, half monster, who passes for human among those who once ostracized him, and a hero of the wendigo people, who makes an improbable alliance with our protagonists.
The book is cool in that in doesn't use sentient species as an unconscious metaphor for race. While at times this has been an apt way to explain how different culture can make us, it has also been a vehicle for racist stereotypes.
In my book the main characters are dark skinned, and live on the outskirts of their city. They are generally poor. They interact with fantastical sentient species but also humans who look different and have more money. In some ways, the world in the book mirrors ours, and in others, it is a new place to discover. Above I've posted a water color map that appears in the Kindle version. The city is stratified by class- other species and foreigners may not enter past the first ring, Agora, while the dark skinned may not enter beyond Subagora (low market) District, the second outermost ring. Alturba (derived from latin- alta urbis, high city) is for the largely wealthy and light skinned, and the innermost ring, Citadel, is where the eight noble families live. The main characters, Subagorans, face the problem of alerting the king of an assassination plot, and they're not allowed anywhere near him.
It also has a range of characters, from a heretic who speaks the truth, to a half man, half monster, who passes for human among those who once ostracized him, and a hero of the wendigo people, who makes an improbable alliance with our protagonists.
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